1st Place with U/R Stasis at Weekly Tournament

I told Feline I would type up a report, so here goes. Everything is by memory so apologies if I missed anything or got it mixed up from another match. Also note that this was at a local weekly tournament so it wasn't a huge event. I think we had either 9 or 11 players.


I'll start with the decklist. I started with Adam Prosak's list for the base then made changes based on personal preference (ex. Ponder over Visions) and what I had available (currently only own 2 Jaces but I'm also comfortable with that number).

8 Island
1 Mountain
3 Volcanic Island
1 Sulfur Falls (couldn't find my 4th Volcanic, but I may keep this in since it does get around Choke)
1 Karakas
8 Blue Fetchlands

2 Venser, Shaper Savant

3 Ral Zarek
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Chain of Vapor
2 Spell Pierce
2 Fire//Ice
2 Counterspell
2 Snap
4 Force of Will

4 Stasis
2 Back to Basics

2 Vedalken Shackles

Sideboard:
2 Misdirection
2 Mana Short
2 Pendrell Mists
2 Propaganda
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Cursed Totem

Venser, Misdirection and Karakas were changes made the morning of the tournament after talking to a friend the week before. Originally Venser was Snapcaster, Misdirection was Divert and Karakas was a 9th Island.

The sideboard was quickly thrown together aside from a few cards.

Round 1 vs Reanimator (Kyle from the most recent SCG Seattle Top 8)

Game 1: I think he mulled to 5 and it was me having answers for 2 of his Reanimation spells and Back to Basics keeping him light on mana. He eventually gets a creature in play (Sphinx or Angel of Despair) but I have the Shackles for it and Karakas for any Legends so he scoops.

Game 2: His deck does its thing. Early discard and he gets a Jin in play. I'm able to bounce it on my turn though keeping my hand. But I can't come back from his card draw and he gets there.

Game 3: We go back and forth and he tries to Reanimate an Angel of Despair to kill one of my Planeswalkers. He Brainstorms to try to find a counter for my counter and I respond with Extraction on the Angel. I drop Karakas on the next turn and that was the end since I had a Shackles in play.

1-0; 2-1

Round 2 vs Team America

Game 1: Back to Basics slows him down considerably until I'm able to lock the game out completely.

Game 2: Typical Team America beating. Early thoughtseizes + Delver ends this one for me.

Game 3: We both had decent starts, but he has pressure on me while I try to lock up the board. I eventually land Tamiyo which saves me from his Goyf but he still has a Deathrite chipping away at me. I eventually manage to get it off the board with Venser when I'm at 1 life. I also end up getting Tamiyo's ultimate off and start gaining a large amount of card advantage trying to find a Stasis. Meanwhile he has 2 Goyfs and when I finally get Stasis out he goes to Abrupt Decay it but I have the Misdirection and make him kill one of his Goyfs. From there there was nothing else he could do since I had answers for anything he played at that point thanks to Tamiyo.

2-0; 4-2

Round 3 vs Junk/Rock/Dark Maverick

Game 1: Back to Basics slows him down long enough for me to get the hard lock.

Game 2: He gets a decent start with Hierarch and Deathrite in play along with a Jitte. He goes to play Elspeth but Venser stops that and I play Back to Basics the following turn. Jitte ends up killing my Venser but I managed to keep his creatures from hitting me after already dropping to 5. Totem stops his mana creatures while I try to find answers and I end up getting Stasis out with Jace, but I have to dig for a way to complete the lock instead of going for the Jace win due to my low life. Thankfully I'm able to keep Stasis around for a bit and I eventually find another Stasis. I let the original Stasis expire and give him 1 turn to untap his basics. He goes to play something and I either countered it or dealt with it on my turn. From there I untap my basic lands and drop another Stasis, but this time with Ral Zarek for the permanent lock.

3-0; 6-2

Round 4 vs Mono-White Stax (Feline)

We ID but play it out to see which deck would win.

Game 1: I counter her lock pieces aside from a Chalice on 1 and manage to get my lock online before she can draw more gas. I ended up ultimating Ral netting 4/5 turns.

Game 2: She gets out Trinisphere and eventually a Smokestacks which shuts me out. I ended up drawing the Force 1-2 turns after the Sphere landed.

Game 3: She seems to have a land light hand and goes for the turn 1 Chalice which I Spell Pierce. She misses a few of her next land drops and keeps taking damage from Ancient Tomb. She manages to get a Trinisphere out but I don't counter it since I have plenty of mana. I eventually get Ral and Tamiyo out. Ral taps Trinisphere to make my spells cheaper and Tamiyo taps down her Plains. I eventually ultimate both getting 2 turns from Ral. I then Chain of Vapor one of her artifacts and she declines to copy the spell since my Planeswalkers already did their jobs. I then proceed to bounce the rest of her non-land permanents thanks to Tamiyo. There was no point to go on from there so she scooped.

4-0; 8-3 (3-0-1 officially)

Side Note: Feline and I finished 3 games in just slightly more time than it took for a Shardless BUG vs Rock (my R3 opponent) match to finish 1 game. We were both amused by that considering we were both playing prison decks.


For the most part I'm quite happy with the deck, especially considering the quality of the players/decks I played against. Team America was the only deck I really felt like I had the slight advantage against (due to Back to Basics which affects them greatly), but I also never felt like I was completely out of any matchup. Everything in the main deck had a use at some point, so I may just end up adjusting the numbers of certain cards (possibly fitting in another Counterspell). The Sideboard definitely needs some work, but I was also happy with most of it. Propaganda and Mists will most likely be going since they were underwhelming. Mana Short I still want to test more due to the potential of using it during my opponent's upkeep/draw step/eot then dropping Stasis on my turn. It also gives me a way to deal with Fetchlands to prevent my opponent from playing Abrupt Decay. I never brought Clique in either, but like Mana Short I want to test it more. At one point I actually considered putting Tibalt in the 75 so I could kill my opponent with his Sudden Impact ability. I can't think of anything more humiliating than dying to Tibalt in Legacy.

Thanks for reading and I welcome any feedback on the deck/report.

It was very awesome to see that, even after I read the article I didn't think I'd ever see a Stasis deck in the format again. Also always fun to read local tournament reports, of course.

As far as the match up goes with Stax -vs- this incarnation of Stasis, Stax can be more explosive, but Stasis has counters & card draw, so in the long term Stasis is more consistent. Basically the longer the game goes, unless Stax has something significant in play from early on, then it's probably leaning more and more toward Stasis favor with each passing turn of "draw go's".

Have to play it again sometime, though with Goblins or High Tide from my end, as far as Pox goes I am likely going to let the deck go at this point.

-edit- Oh, I'm going to post this report to Reddit, so you should get a nice surge of views. ^.^ It's stasis afterall, who wouldn't want to read about that!

Came over from Reddit and finally decided to make an account to comment on my nemesis, my love: Stasis.

I'm glad to see a stasis deck showing some positive results. Adam Prosak's article elicited a strange mix of feelings: Disgust at potentially having to play against Stasis and fondness that Stasis is a potential thing now with Ral Zarek. I do love me some prison decks.

Anyways, I'm curious how Vedalken Shackles have been for you and why Tamiyo is in the list (How did she perform).

I'm also interested in why you chose Tamiyo, particularly over a 5th Ral Zarek, as he's the only hard lock you have available. I've been experimenting with the deck recently, but I'm going to try a build more like yours - I think I've been far too greedy in trying to stick other stasis combo pieces into the deck, all of which are just worse than Zarek.

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Originally Posted by Terminus

I'm also interested in why you chose Tamiyo, particularly over a 5th Ral Zarek, as he's the only hard lock you have available. I've been experimenting with the deck recently, but I'm going to try a build more like yours - I think I've been far too greedy in trying to stick other stasis combo pieces into the deck, all of which are just worse than Zarek.

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I assume you mean 4th Ral Zarek :p

But sweet deck! Love seeing Ral and Tamiyo. Tamiyo I think has to be a solid walker in legacy/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by barcode

Anyways, I'm curious how Vedalken Shackles have been for you and why Tamiyo is in the list (How did she perform).

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Just from my limited time with the deck so far, the Shackles didn't seem too important for the deck. Granted they did help me get a win against Reanimator, but the only other time I had them out (against BUG) they didn't really affect much. Currently I see Shackles as more of a defensive tool than an offensive one since the deck doesn't have a decent clock (aside from Jace). I may move them to the sideboard or just cut them completely.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Terminus

I'm also interested in why you chose Tamiyo, particularly over a 5th Ral Zarek, as he's the only hard lock you have available. I've been experimenting with the deck recently, but I'm going to try a build more like yours - I think I've been far too greedy in trying to stick other stasis combo pieces into the deck, all of which are just worse than Zarek.

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I only went with 3 Ral Zareks since he doesn't do a whole lot unless you have Stasis out. I think Adam was spot on with the 3 in his list since there were multiple times I ended up with extras in my hand and Kyle (Reanimator) was the only person to stop Ral and that was with Pithing Needle.

As for Tamiyo, she was added as the replacement for the 3rd Jace. Every so often I would try to fit her in to a deck due to her potential, but I think this would be the deck where she truly shines. The +1 ability was the MVP in Game 3 vs BUG since it locked down a Goyf that would have easily killed me. It also locked Feline out of White mana in Game 3 of our match. One thing worth noting is in the 2-3 times I got her in play I ended up getting an Emblem from her which proved to be game ending (never ending counters and bounce). The spot is certainly debatable, but I feel that she has a place in the deck due to her synergy with the deck and how easy it is for the deck to protect her. I probably wouldn't include more than 1 though since you don't want to play her until you have a decent board position.


Currently I'm going to work 1-2 REBs into the main, possibly in the Shackles or Fire/Ice position. This would give me more against control and at worst give me another way to get rid of Stasis on my opponent's turn so I can untap and replay another.

The last report I read of your's you got second with battle of wits deck and now first with stasis? I friggin love this guy. Legacy needs more people like you.

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Originally Posted by baghdadbob

The last report I read of your's you got second with battle of wits deck and now first with stasis? I friggin love this guy. Legacy needs more people like you.

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Thanks! I plan on playing something different next week, but I don't plan on doing very well. It should be fun though.

That's what my old metagame was always like... Unfortunately, there's a ton of people who only care about winning and suck the fun out of the game. I hope you keep brewing jank sir.